Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Bu-Ali Sina University
2 M. S. in Economics
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between
bank ownership and prudential behavior of banks in Iranian banking
industry. Although, the relationship between bank ownership and
performance is well studied but there are few studies focusing on the
effect of ownership upon banks lending and prudential behavior (Jia
2009). This paper as the first study over Iranians banking system is to
tackle this subject using a panel of 12 banks over 2002 – 2008. To this
aim the main determinants of prudential behavior as control regressors
are considered to provide a much more accurate model to describe the
relationship between the prudential behavior and ownership structure
of banks. The findings of the study provide the strong evidence to
conclude that the lending by states–owned banks has been less prudent
than lending by private banks. Furthermore, the results of this study
show that the larger banks tend to be more prudent than the smaller
ones. Moreover, the results indicate that the less market concentration
in Iranian banking industry and the more GDP growth lead to the less
prudential behavior. The results also show that the higher percentage
of loans in arrears results in the more prudential behavior. Last but not
least, the findings of this research show that lending by state–owned
banks is becoming more prudent indicating the positive effects of the
reforms of Iranian banking system over the last decade.
Keywords
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